Agricultural feed bagging machines have been employed for several years to pack or bag silage or the like into elongated plastic bags. Two of the earliest bagging machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,687,061 and 4,046,068. More recently, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,337,805 and 4,621,666 have issued which disclose modifications of the basic bagging machines. In all of the feed bagging machines of the prior art, the silage is packed into the bags in an air-tight condition so that proper fermentation of the silage material takes place. In the bagging machines of the prior art, an effort was made to eliminate air within the bags.
Recently, it has been discovered that compost material, or material to be decomposed or composted, may be composted in large plastic bags. In such a procedure, it is necessary that air be present in the material to be composted so that proper decomposition of the material takes place. It was first thought that a feed bagging machine such as that disclosed in the prior art patents identified hereinabove, could be utilized to place the materials to be composted into the bag. However, the feed bagging machines of the prior art simply are not suitable for use in placing the material to be composted in a bag since the material in the bag would not have sufficient air therein to enable the material to decompose.
In an effort to solve the problems of the prior art, the invention disclosed in the co-pending application Ser. No. 08/215,200 filed Mar. 21, 1994, was provided which created air channels in the silage in the bag and which provided a perforated pipe in the approximate center of the bag. The bags utilized in the co-pending application were black bags or white bags which prevented the passage of sunlight therethrough. It was found that it was sometimes necessary to provide a manual means for forcing air through the perforated pipe and the fluted channels so that sufficient movement of air would occur throughout the bag. A problem arose with the above solution in that in many cases, there was not a power means for powering the blowers or the like.
It is therefore a principal object of the invention to provide a method and means for creating air channels in bagged compost material so that the compost material will properly decompose.
A further object of the invention is to provide a compost bagging machine which creates air channels in the bagged compost material.
A further object of the invention is to provide a compost bagging machine including means for positioning an elongated perforated pipe in the compost material.
A further object of the invention is to provide a compost bagging machine including a means for creating a plurality of spaced-apart air channels in the exterior surface of the bagged material.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method and means for creating air channels in bagged compost material which ensures that sufficient air will be present in the bagged compost material to enable the material to efficiently decompose.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide a method and means for composting organic material.
Still another object of the invention is to provide a method and means for composting organic material in a clear transparent bag.
These and other objects of the present invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art.